Our situation might be a bit different in that we rarely eat what most folks would call "breakfast" (DW often eats A piece of toast with morning meds - MAYBE a glass of milk with or instead.) If I eat breakfast, it is most likely a substitute for lunch (Breakfast anytime places!) My typical 3rd meal - if I eat one - might be cereal at 8 or 9PM.

But we do like to go out often for lunch. At one time (before and after kids) we ate virtually every lunch out and often evening meal as well. Now that we'd just as soon stay in at night (except for social dinners) we mostly just go out for lunch about 5 times/week.

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We eat out pretty much only when we are travelling or having dinner with other people. It isn't the $, because sometimes it is cheaper to eat at a restaurant I've found, it's more the calories (carbs, whatever) and portion sizes that are hard to control at a restaurant--if we ate out all the time I would be more diligent and annoying to the wait staff about it, of course...

+1, although our meal is usually less expensive than in restaurants.

Now that I've cooked more, I find that I eat less when I cook, because I derive some satisfaction from cooking rather than eating. Also, run-of-the-mill restaurant dishes have little to excite me. We do not normally go out to fast food.

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__________________"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man" -- Leon Trotsky

I started my own questions on the subject yesterday, and despite going through the first 200 Google links, could find nothing that came close to any kind of sensible answer.
Much on costs, budgets, calories, health, quintiles of wealth, occupation, age, sex,nationality, annual comparisons, and a hundreds of different analyses... Not one single article that simply covered the average number of meals eaten away from home. The BLS has dozens of charts and comparisons, but nothing that specifically covered the average number of meals eaten away from home.

The average bit gets goofy. If you were traveling five weeks in a year but the rest of the time you had every single meal at home, you would still average two meals a week away from home.

In our case, age has made a big difference. Where we were wont to lunch at a fast food emporium while out shopping or doing some minor day travel, that is no longer the case. Just once, in the past year, at a Subway. Not familiar with ordering:
"I'll have the combination".
"Sir... a combination of what?"
A line of ten young people behind me... impatient...
We had to go through the whole spiel... kind of roll, kinds of meat, lettuce, peppers, mayo, pickles sweet or dill, dressing... etc, etc...
Whatever happened to simple? The menus at McD's, Wendys etc, which used to have (maybe 20) choices, now have more than a hundred.

And so, we're down to our local, familiar, inexpensive, friendly Oriental Buffet and Mongolian stir fry. Three minutes from home, easy parking, nice atmosphere, 100+ entrees and our special table by the window. Total for two, with tax and senior discount, $12.16.... with a 25% tip, $15.

Average meals away? Used to be the "5 to 10".... now, including the visits from our kids who insist on this special place... about once a week.

curious question, for us it isn't even about eating out or in any longer but how much per day are we spending since even eating at home every day our food bill last month was $1723 for 2 people. I hope as my honey ages his appetite at sometime will reduce or organic becomes cheaper or we locate to a place where farmers markets are actually cheaper than whole foods as its the one thing keeping us from both retiring as I figure at least another $.5M is needed to cover his food bill.

OMG. That's more than my entire budget including taxes. I spend less than $200/mo and that includes toiletries and all food and beverages for one person. That being said, if you can afford it and it's not causing you to be obese then it's fine.

I typically will have lunch after golf twice a week, go to wings night at a neighborhood watering hole for a light dinner of a half dozen wings and a salad for $8 and usually dinner at the club after golf on Sunday afternoons. DW is pretty much the same except one of her after golf meals is dinner rather than lunch.

Great topic. When w*rking I ate out at least once a day, it was sanity preservation. Since I retired I go out once a week DW and I about once a month. That's if we're home. I've been cooking better foods thanks to some people here and I'm finding restaurant food stinks of salt. We were gone most of last week, ate every meal out. A few were good, the two days of driving was horrible for food. Nothing but fast food junk and energy bars. Next time I'll pack breakfast and lunch for the road.

We eat at home most of the time - eating out about 2x/month when at home.

On our current vacation we are renting apartments... we're eating 1 meal out per day... depending on the day we bring sandwiches with us and have dinner out - or have lunch out and cook at our rental. It's the only way to keep our vacation spending under control.

I also found that the local grocery store wine is MUCH cheaper than ordering at a restaurant... so that also saves money.

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Retired June 2014. No longer an enginerd - now I'm just a nerd.
micro pensions 7%, rental income 18%

Holy crow. We spend about $250 per month per person for everything one buys at a grocery store, including paper/cleaning products. We eat lots of produce, and are neither overweight nor skinny. We seem to have to buy organic whether we choose to or not - it's starting to be all that the box store carries.

That $250 is up from less than $200 per person per month five years ago, even though we cut out soft drinks and snack foods (crackers, chips).

Quote:

Originally Posted by karen1972

our food bill last month was $1723 for 2 people. .

__________________If you understood everything I say, you'd be me ~ Miles Davis'There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.’ Christopher Morley.

Since the question is "meals away from home" and not "meals at restaurants," I'll go with 5 - 10 per week average. At home, we do take-out more than dine in and, at most, twice a week. But we've been traveling up to 10 weeks per year (camper) and all those meals are "away from home." They're in our traveling home, our camper, but OP was pretty clear he meant meals away from your "home base."

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We eat most meals at home, going out at most once per week if that. Over a year's time I'd guess it averages out to once every other week we eat out. Neither one of us is a big fan of restaurant meals but DW does get a bug for one once in a while.

Since the question is "meals away from home" and not "meals at restaurants," I'll go with 5 - 10 per week average. At home, we do take-out more than dine in and, at most, twice a week. But we've been traveling up to 10 weeks per year (camper) and all those meals are "away from home." They're in our traveling home, our camper, but OP was pretty clear he meant meals away from your "home base."

We live in the land of potlucks are mo better, in this case I may have to increase my meals away from home to 3 a week.

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We almost never eat breakfast out as I am not a morning person. We eat dinner out maybe once every couple of months. We do eat lunch away from home about 3-5 times a week, but it is often food prepared at home that we bring along with us to a park, the beach, or on a hike. We don't travel a lot but, when we do, we usually go to our home base in Europe and stick to our routine of eating meals at home. The rest of our travels is camping-style and, again, we tend to prepare our own food at the campsite.

So, lunches brought to work or school count as "meals out"? Somehow I find that odd. They are meals, but we prepared them at home....

OP said:

Quote:

For purposes of the poll... How many meals "away from home"... for whatever reason. Meals at w*rk, fast food, sandwiches, restaurant or business meals. And... because so many travel... average in the number of meals that you eat while you are traveling or on vacation.

It's his poll............ He was pretty emphatic that he didn't mean only meals eaten in a restaurant but rather "away from home." Maybe he'll clarify one more time?

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"I wasn't born blue blood. I was born blue-collar." John Wort Hannam

I'd guess the high end of 5-10. 5 lunches at work, usually one or two dinners out is an average week. Then add in travel to get us up around 8-10. Looking at our spending thus far this year, we've spent more at restaurants than we have on groceries. That's eye-opening... but it's been a travel-heavy year thus far. I'd guess it'll even out.

Now, if you ask how many meals I *buy* away from home, that's in the 2-5 range because I pack lunch daily... which makes that restaurant vs. groceries spending thus far this year even more alarming.

Of course, I didn't count in deployments in which case I'd be in the 15+ range...

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